Days of Rage

FILMED January 1971

A major challenge when creating a film is to hook future audiences as soon as possible, to involve them mentally and emotionally with the situation and the drama’s characters. That was even more important when making films for television, because If the opening sequence in a show doesn’t catch the viewer’s interest, a change of channel is an imminent possibility. Most television shows in that ancient period when I was involved began with a teaser before the opening credits. The beginning sequence for cop and detective shows usually was the commission of a crime. I can attest to that. In the 45 cop/detective films I directed, I oversaw a lot of crimes and I must admit, they were fun sequences to film. Here’s what kicked off DAYS OF RAGE.

Did that catch your interest or are you going to change channels?

Filming DAYS OF RAGE closed in on a decade since I directed JOHNNY TEMPLE on DR. KILDARE and as I have written several times, I had seen a sharp decline in the quality of the scripts I was being given to direct. I remember that during my earlier years directing, the inexperienced me felt challenged to turn over to my producers films that matched the excellence of the scripts I had been assigned. As the quality of scripts slackened, the more experienced me felt even more challenged to compensate for that loss as I directed the films I was contracted to do.

I bring that up because DAYS OF RAGE fell into that second category. I wondered, but doubted if that had any effect when the production schedule was made. Most television shows were filmed in 6 days. QM Productions were filmed in 7 days. DAYS OF RAGE had a 7½ day shooting schedule: 1/2 a day pre-production filming in the studio; 2 days out-of-the-city locations; 2 days local locations; 3 days filming at the studio.

To remind you that we film out-of-sequence: the police lab scene was filmed on the extra pre-production half day; the shootout and following sequence was filmed on the 2^nd day in Ventura, CA; the following gun shop scene was also filmed on that 2^nd day in Ventura.

I always found it exciting when I directed major stars I had watched in movies in the 30’s at the Cecil Theatre in Mason City: Barbara Stanwyck, Mickey Rooney, Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford, Pat O’Brien, Beulah Bondi, Walter Pidgeon, Ralph Bellamy, Ray Bolger, James Whitmore, Lloyd Bridges, Burgess Meredith. Even some not so major like Norman Foster, who played the owner of the gun shop. Norman had a very successful career as an actor from 1929 to 1936, when he moved behind the camera to direct films, first in movies, then television, for another 40 years. He was married to Claudette Colbert and later to Sally Blane, Loretta Young’s sister. Amongst others he directed RACHEL AND THE STRANGER starring Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum and William Holden and JOURNEY INTO FEAR for Orson Welles’ Mercury Productions. He many not have been major. He definitely wasn’t minor.

Hippie (especially in the 60’s): A person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs.

Television in the 60’s was prone to present stories featuring Hippies. Fortunately I did not have to face the prospect of directing one of those films too often. My objection was that the Hippies in those stores were not explored for their beliefs, for what drove them into those beliefs; they were presented stereotypically, as an oversimplified image, an idea of a particular type of person. My goal was to avoid those stereotypes in DAYS OF RAGE.

I don’t remember where the car junkyard was located; it was in the greater Los Angeles area. When I was taken there when we scouted locations, I thought it was magnificent, lots of opportunity for staging with interesting camera angles. It was our scheduled 3^rd day. We had many scenes totally 10 pages to film, including all of the bus interior sequences. It proved to be a very long day — the sequences were both day and night.

The actor playing Vic was Victor Holchak. He along with several other actors was brought in to audition by the casting director. He had been working for some time on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, a daytime soap opera and I was not acquainted with his work. I was impressed with his audition, but I foresaw a possible problem. Vic was 6 foot 4 inches tall; Burt Reynolds was 6 foot. I cast him, but I shared my concern about his height. When we did his scene with August, I staged it conveniently close to one of the wrecked trucks and Vic leaned back, his elbows resting on the vehicle, shortening his height. Visually there was no problem.

DAYS OF RAGE was the 2^nd time I directed Diana Hyland. We worked together 2 more times the following year and then there was a 5-year gap before we were scheduled to work together again. That was the episode of EIGHT IS ENOUGH, when Diana died during my preparation period. Diana’s long Hollywood career in television was preceded by her work in New York, in live television and on the Broadway stage. She played “Heavenly Finley” in the acclaimed Tennessee Williams production SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, but she did not play it when the play was filmed. Shirley Knight played it and was Oscar nominated. It was a role that could have made her a film star.

I met Simon Scott (real name Daniel Scott Simon) in 1955 when I did the lighting for SATURDAY’S CHILDREN, a production that he starred in at the Player’s Ring Theatre in Hollywood. DAYS OF RAGE was the 7^th time I cast him in a television production. There were 2 more in our future. Danny was so versatile; he could be cast heroic, evil or everything in between.

We filmed the airport scene in Oxnard on the 1^st day and the two behind the counters were Jimmy Hayes and Arlen Stuart, old friends. I met them at the Player’s Ring Theatre almost 2 decades before. Jimmy’s no longer with us, but I spoke on the phone with Arlen just last week.

I think DAYS OF RAGE was the first time Shelly Novak (Matt Lawrence) was cast in a QM production. It opened a door. The following season he was cast in an episode of QM’s BANYON and the season after that he replaced William Reynolds as Efrem Zimbalist’s assistant for the final season of THE FBI. Tragically he died of a heart attack in 1978. He was 34 years old.

DAYS was the first time I worked with Pamela McMyler (Elena). One day when we were back at the studio, Pamela brought a short independent film she had appeared in 3 years before. During our lunch hour I arranged for a screening room where she and I viewed it. The film was AMBLIN’, written and directed by Steven Spielberg.

Alf Kjellin (pronounced sha-LEEN; Josef Tanis) had an incredible past. Trained as a stage actor in Sweden, he was noticed by Hollywood for his performance in 1944’s TORMENT, a film written (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman. MGM signed him to a contract and changed his name to Christopher Kent. He made a few films in Hollywood, then returned to Sweden and resumed his name Alf Kjellin. Eventually he turned to directing and returned to Hollywood in 1960 for a successful career directing television and some acting, but under his real name.

It has been no secret that Burt Reynolds always did his own stunts. Well that was Burt in the flying helicopter, Burt hanging outside the cab of the flying helicopter and Burt leaping out of the flying helicopter onto Tanis.

DAYS OF RAGE was the last episode of DAN AUGUST that I directed. It was filmed very late in the season. The following spring when the schedule for the next season was announced, DAN AUGUST was missing.

The journey continues